Dozens of Rabbis Forbid Renting to Gentiles

Dozens of Israel’s municipal chief rabbis have signed on to a religious ruling that forbids renting homes to gentiles, and more specifically to Arabs.

The ruling, which became public on Tuesday, comes less than two months after leading rabbis in the northern Israeli city of Safed signed on to a letter drafted by the city’s chief rabbi calling on Jews not to rent to non-Jews in the northern Israeli city, as well as a month after rabbis in the haredi Orthodox Israeli city of Bnei Brak issued a religious ruling forbidding residents to rent apartments to African refugees, echoing a similar ruling for southern Tel Aviv.

The ruling states that renting to non-Jews and Arabs will deflate the value of the home and of homes in the area. It says that neighbors of those who are renting or considering selling to non-Jews or Arabs should first warn the neighbor personally, and it the behavior continues to notify the community. The offending landlord, according to the ruling, must be ignored and not be called to the Torah for an aliyah,

Israeli civil rights organizations and Knesset members criticized ruling. They called for rabbis signing on to the ruling to be fired from their jobs.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said on Tuesday called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn the ruling and take action against those who signed on to it.

“Rabbis who are civil servants have an obligation to the entire public, including Israel’s Arab citizens. It is unthinkable that they would use their public status to promote racism and incitement,” read a statement from ACRI, issued Tuesday.

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